"Life is just a network of rivers, and we’re all hopelessly lost sailors pretending to know where the currents lead." — Jerin Dika, planar scholar
In their quest to comprehend the metaphysical realms, scholars have sought to unravel the structure of existence. Through extensive study and debate, they developed the most widely accepted theoretical framework of the Multiverse, known as the Riverbound Cosmology. According to this model, the planes are metaphysical islands, continents, or archipelagos scattered across an infinite network of celestial rivers. These rivers, called Evergates, weave through the Multiverse, serving as sentient conduits of energy and memory. Evergates are constantly shifting their courses, adapting to changes in cosmic balance, mortal belief, and divine intent.
Evergates
The Evergates are infinite rivers of luminous, liquid essence, shimmering with the hues of emotion, memory, and primordial energy. Flowing through multiple planes, they form portals or thresholds at their intersections. As sentient entities, the Evergates respond to the Multiverse’s needs, sometimes denying passage to those without purpose. Serving as the arteries of reality, the Evergates facilitate travel and communication between planes, carrying souls, ideas, and even entire worlds within their currents. Among them, Cocytus, the River of Sorrow, stands as the largest and most enduring Evergate that all other Evergates eventually return to, carrying the souls of their planes.
Planar Phenomena
Within the realms of the Evergates, reality is prone to a number of unpredictable, cataclysmic disasters that threaten the planes as a hurricane would a coastal town.
Drift
Planes are carried along the Evergates’ flow, changing their positions relative to each other. This drift alters how planes interact and the difficulty of reaching them.
Floods & Droughts
Cosmic phenomena where the celestial rivers surge or recede. A flood connects distant realms in unpredictable ways, while a drought isolates planes, severing their connections to the Multiverse.
Rapids
Torrential sections of the celestial rivers; places of wild energy and unpredictable movement, where planar boundaries blur and reality is constantly reshaped. Unlike the calm flow of the Evergates, rapids are violent, tearing through planes and dragging fragments of existence into their currents. They are the Multiverse’s great equalizer, breaking down stagnant planes and redistributing their essence across the Evergates. Travelers who venture into the rapids risk being swept into unknown realms—or torn apart by the raw forces surging through these chaotic waters. Yet for those who survive, the rapids can lead to uncharted planes and extraordinary discoveries.
Oceans
Oceans, also known as Oceanic Planes, are vast, fluid realms whose boundaries shift and reshape according to unknown metaphysical forces. Without defined dimensions, Oceans swell or recede, and their scale often defies conventional measurement. Some, such as the Arkensea, serve as interplanar substrates: immense planar canvases upon which lesser realms drift, overlap, or momentarily anchor. These Oceans function as the connective tissue of the Multiverse, forming the liminal spaces between more stable planes, and can typically only be traversed safely by way of the Evergates.
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The Sourcewell is the very foundation of existence—the primordial wellspring from which the Multiverse draws its energy, power, and purpose. All Evergates, including Cocytus itself, are believed to originate from these headwaters of pure positive energy. Beyond the boundaries of time and space, the Sourcewell is a vast nexus of raw potential, a swirling sea of primordial forces that continually reshape the Multiverse. Its boundless energy fuels the cycles of creation, existence, and destruction that sustain all planes.
Amid the Evergates, the depths of the Still Waters are the inevitable end, where the Multiverse’s currents come to rest. Found on the fringes of existence, these dark waters are entropy incarnate, serving as final resting places for planes, gods, and energies that have reached their end. The Still Waters slowly draw in nearby planes, breaking them down into pure negative energy; the lifeblood of undeath. They are filled with the dead, but not dead themselves. They are repositories of endings, where what has been abandoned by the Evergates lingers in timeless silence.
Anchors
The Multiverse is held together by a select few planes of immense metaphysical significance, known as the Anchors, or Anchor Planes. These planes serve as the foundation of existence, with each Anchor embodying a core aspect of creation, destruction, or transformation, and influencing the nature of the planes connected to them. Unlike the countless transient or minor planes scattered throughout the Multiverse, the Anchors are eternal and immutable.
All souls inevitably drift along Cocytus, the sentient Evergate that flows through the Multiverse, guiding the dead to their proper afterlife. Both a deity and an Anchor, Cocytus embodies the flow of life and death, carrying souls that weep with sorrow and nostalgia. It does not judge but ensures each soul reaches its destined fate, whether in paradise or torment.
Delta is a sprawling junction where multiple Evergates converge, forming a chaotic metropolis of overlapping planes and possibilities. A hub of interplanar connection, it is a place of seamless borders, where districts blend in a cityscape of impossible architecture from celestial spires to demonic alleys, offering refuge and opportunity to travelers, merchants, and adventurers from across the Multiverse.
Devils do not squat in the decaying corners of creation like other fiends. Instead, they built their own bastion against the void—a colossal, artificial Anchor of machinery and infernal industry. Known as Galzahad, this superstructure of grinding gears, smoke-belching furnaces, and rune-etched steel is a marvel of dark ambition. Suspended at the very edges of existence, where no natural plane could survive, Galzahad endures only because devils fuel its core with stolen positive energy, stabilizing it against the pull of oblivion.
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Iomlán is a plane of raw, unbridled nature—a realm defined by its paradoxical resistance to change. It is an extreme and untamed wilderness, spanning vast forests, sprawling jungles, towering mountains, cavernous depths, scorching deserts, and icy tundra. Despite the relentless passage of time, these landscapes largely remain untouched by civilization. It is not for lack of effort, but rather due to the plane's unique property: it rejects all permanent alterations.
Materia is the prosaic realm and the home of mortal life. Innumerable galaxies play host to countless stars and their planets. Yet, for all the profound wonder and diversity of life that Materia houses, strange alien gods lurk in the dark places between the stars known as the Great Beyond. Materia serves as the destination for pre-incarnate souls, each mortal life born, living, and dying before sending its spirit to Cocytus for judgment. Materia is likewise the focus of the gods, each of whom is invested in fostering their own particular portfolio among mortal worshippers and the material world at large.
Ripples
As transitive planes layered atop Materia, the Ripples—or Ripple Planes—are realms where mortal thought, belief, and perception take shape. Formed from the collective dreams, fears, and convictions of all who live on Materia, these echoes of consciousness drift into one of two mirrored realms. Each Ripple embodies a distinct and often opposing interpretation of reality, shaped not by what is, but by what people believe it to be. Though the planar mechanics remain a mystery, it is widely believed that every mortal possesses the innate ability to shape these realms—and that their deepest thoughts, dreams, and fears inevitably find their way into the Ripples.
Nagotha is the shadowed mirror of mortal fear, where every dread, shame, and suspicion coalesces into a living landscape. Unlike Materia, where truths and lies or love and hate coexist unseen, Nagotha is a reflection of what mortals most wish to hide. A city beloved on Materia might appear in Nagotha as a sprawl of festering alleys where whispered conspiracies never die. A home where a family quarrels in secret becomes here a prison echoing with screams and recriminations. To walk Nagotha is to wander through the collective nightmare of civilization, where nothing is truly what it seems and yet everything is uncomfortably familiar. For most mortals, even a fleeting glimpse of Nagotha through dream or vision is enough to haunt their waking hours.
Phylostea is the luminous twin to Nagotha—the Radiant Mirror where mortal imagination and fond remembrance give shape to the landscape. It is the realm of dreams, ideals, and fading memory, where reality is painted not as it is, but as mortals wish it to be. Here, the warmth of admiration and nostalgia weaves cities of light and fields of impossible beauty where one can walk the collective imagination of mortalkind. Phylostea is no paradise, however: it is as fleeting as a dream upon waking. Just as fears corrupt Nagotha, so too do untethered hopes and blind devotion distort Phylostea into a canvas of delusion, where ideals can uplift—or consume—those who linger too long.
Tributaries
While the Evergates are the grand rivers that shape and connect the Multiverse, the Tributaries are their smaller, more erratic counterparts. Sometimes called Demiplanes, these currents flow from the Evergates, branching off to form pathways to lesser planes, pocket dimensions, and hidden realms. Tributaries often carry remnants of cosmic energy, forgotten memories, or fragmented souls forgotten by Cocytus, creating planes that reflect their transient nature.
Unlike the Evergates, most Tributaries are neither stable nor predictable. They may flow for centuries before vanishing, rerouting, or merging back into the Evergates. This volatility makes them a subject of fascination for planar scholars and a source of danger for adventurers who rely on their paths. Some Tributaries, however, exhibit greater permanence, functioning more like lesser Anchors than volatile streams. These stable realms are often shaped by otherworldly powers as private domains, crafted to reflect their creators’ designs.
Kalasattva’s realm, Karmakhanda, lies on the shadowed fringe of Phylostea and Nagotha in a liminal Tributary, leeching off the spiritual flow of belief. Where Niwali’s realm of Shaanti is a sea of dreams and release, Karmakhanda is a sprawling palace-city of mirrored illusions, soul prisons, and decadent torment. Here, dreams curdle into nightmares that play on ambition and fear, trapping the prideful in cycles of delusion.
La’kila is a realm of searing intensity, where emotion manifests as untamed fire. Every flame burns with purpose, from the roaring infernos of ambition to the smoldering embers of sorrow and the radiant glow of love; the raw, unfiltered passions that drive existence paint the plane.
Niwali's domain, Shaanti, exists beyond the boundaries of the Evergates, accessible only through profound meditation, astral projection, or the rare vision. It is not a place of fixed form, but a vast, ever-shifting ocean of memories, dreams, and echoes of past lives. Here, time flows like the tide—one moment a fleeting ripple, the next an endless current pulling souls deeper into self-discovery.
Tizoc is the sacred storm made manifest—an endless, roiling realm of swamp and sky where Khuujaku’s favored dead awaken not to rest, but to endure. Khuujaku is said to dwell deep within the eye of Tizoc’s eternal storm, watching over the scarce and worthy few lizardfolk whose deeds in life earned the god’s favor.
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